Our text is found in Hebrews
chapter 11. If you would like to follow. There's few accounts. I mean, there's scriptures full
of accounts of evidence that we are saved by grace alone,
that salvation is by grace alone, but there's few accounts where
it is as clear as it is in our text. Others may not be as clear
but they all speak the same thing. This hour I pray the Lord would
be our teacher, cause us to see him in the story of Rahab and
Moses, Rahab and Moses. Now we heard last week about
the blood, we're going to hear about the blood again today.
But the message of Rahab and Moses is essentially the same.
It's essentially the same. Moses had to apply the blood
to the doorpost and lintel for the Lord to pass by. He said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. No death will come upon
you. And Rahab, on the other hand, both were speaking of judgment
coming. Rahab was told, hang the scarlet
thread, bind it in the window. And we saw the scarlet thread
that she was spared, her and her whole household. And so all
of that points to the blood of Christ, doesn't it? That's what
the picture is. Our entire base for believing
anything in the scripture is based upon God. speaking, God
doing, God causing. If he doesn't do, if he doesn't
cause, if he doesn't make, we won't believe. We won't believe. It's amazing how you have a harlot
such as Rahab ends up believing God. She's a Gentile. She wasn't a Jew. was not part
of the promise, she was not part of the Jewish heritage, Jewish
lineage, and yet she believed God, and God spared her, God
saved her. So we see that it's not of us
in any way, it's all by grace, and it's his promise, his electing,
him doing everything in salvation. As we heard last Sunday, the
blood is the only hope for that. The blood is the sinner's only
hope for salvation, for eternal life. Let's read Hebrews 11,
verse 28 through 31. And I go ahead and say now, and
I may say again before this is over, we're going to look at
verse 30, second hour. It's the walls of Jericho. And
I'm not gonna speak much on that this hour. I actually had all
of this as one message. And I thought, well, rather than
preaching an hour and 15 minutes, I probably need to back this
off and make two out of it. So I pray the Lord will bless
it this morning. Hebrews 11, verse 28. Through faith, Moses kept the
Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed
the firstborn should touch them. By faith, they passed to the
Red Sea, as by dry land, which the Egyptians, as a saying to
do, were drowned. By faith, the walls of Jericho
fell down after they were come past about seven days. By faith, the harlot Rahab perished
not with them that believe not, when she had received the spies
with peace. Let's stop right there. I want
us to notice. the contrast between Rahab and
Moses. Moses was born with a death sentence
upon his head. Pharaoh had said all of the male
children had to die because the children of Israel, their nation
was getting too populous and he was afraid of revolt or rebellion. He was afraid of war. And so
they killed the children. And yet Moses's parents, by faith,
saw Moses was a proper child, scripture says, a proper child.
And he was spared and put into a basket made of bulrushes and
sent down the Nile River. And where did he end up? He ended
up at the princess's house, didn't he? Pharaoh's daughter, princess.
And she said, this is one of the Hebrews, but yet had compassion
on him and raised him as her own. So now Moses became a prince
of Egypt. But he was glad, he counted the reproach of Christ
greater than all the treasure in Egypt. He wanted to be recognized
as a Hebrew. He was clinging to the promise
of God that the Messiah would come. He saw past the treasures
of Egypt. He saw past the things that they
had, their earthly possessions, and he was looking for the promise
of the Lord. The only way that we'll look for the promise of
the Lord is if the Lord gives us faith to believe it, faith to
believe it. And so Moses took sides with
the Jews and ended up killing someone. He flees into the desert
because he was afraid a Pharaoh was going to kill him. And 40
years he heard sheep. And then the Lord appeared to
him in a burning bush and said, I want you to go to, I want you
to go to Pharaoh and tell him, let my people go. And that's
exactly what happened. What a miraculous account, what
a miraculous story of the Lord's miracle in bringing them out
of Egypt's bondage and a picture of our Lord bringing us out of
sin and captivity of our sin, the way that he did miraculously.
So that's Moses, now you have Rahab, something totally different.
With Rahab, she was a harlot, she was living in open sin. She
was living in open sin. She was not only, she was a sinner
by practice, and yes we are too, but you understand what I'm saying.
That's her, it was her occupation, she was a harlot. And yet, the
Lord sent two spies, just as he sent, just as he caused that
bush to be on fire and speak to Moses, came to where Moses
was, he came to where she was too. sent two spies. Joshua was
told to the Lord, go spy out the land. And he, they did. And
he sent two spies. They went in, they, they spot
out the land and it just so happened. And that's how it works. Isn't
it? That's just so happened. No, no, the Lord purposed for
those two spies to end up on the doorstep of Rahab, the harlot,
somehow some way. And there they are talking. And
their actions would have deceived, it would have given them away.
Their actions, their mannerisms, their accent. You know, sometimes
you still hear the Tennessee accent I have come out a little
bit. So it gives you away where you're from. And so they would
have known these are Hebrews. These are not our countrymen.
These are Hebrews. It was told to the king that
two spies came out of Hebrews to spy the land. Well, he calls
for Rahab and says, I want you to bring those men before me.
And she lied. She said, well, they departed. They left already.
And she hid them. She hid them. She had faith in
God to believe God and hid those two spies of the Lord. And so
then she gives them instruction. This is what you need to do to
live. You gotta go up in the mountains, wait this long, because I know
she knew the pattern of how they searched and whatever else and
told them what to do. They did that, they made it back to Joshua and said,
yeah, we can take the city. And so on the way out, the two
spies, she said unto them, because I have done kindly unto you,
unto the Lord, I want a true token. That was her word, true
token. And isn't that what the blood
is to the Lord's people, the true token? That's right, the
blood is the true token. And she wanted a true token,
and he said, well, this red, this scarlet cord that you let
us down by, if you will bind this in your window, when judgment
comes, when judgment comes, it will pass by your house. Everybody
inside will be fine, and you'll be fine. And that's exactly what
happened. Both of these stories speak of
judgment. Both of these stories speak of
judgment. Moses' account is going to be judgment upon the firstborn.
Rahab's account, the whole city is going to be destroyed, so
she would have died too. But the one thing they have in common
is they had to have something applied. They had to have a covering.
They had to have something that the Lord would look at in order
to show them mercy. It wasn't nothing they had made
with their hands in a sense of, I've done this, now the Lord
will be pleased. This is just the word of the Lord. The Lord
said, go kill a lamb, put the blood upon the doorpost and lentil.
He said, bind the rope in the window. Now, if you knew destruction
was coming, the Lord said, bind the rope in the window, our flesh
might be like, well, that doesn't sound like that's gonna do me
any good. Not a bit of good, it's just a cord in the window.
But faith believes God. Faith believes what he says.
He says, bind the cord in the window. Lord's people say, truth,
Lord, I don't understand, but I'll do it. I'll do it, and I
believe your word. I believe your promise. And that's
what she did. And that's what she did. Both of these accounts
talked about judgment with only one means of escape. And both
of them point to the blood as that means of escape. Both of
them point to the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for
his people. How much salvation came to Jericho that day? How
many houses? How many houses? Just one. Just
one house. Why? She was chosen of God, a
vessel of mercy. The Lord said, I'm going to make
her a vessel of mercy before the foundation of the world.
He chose to save her and her house. chose to save her in her
house. Well, why did he, why did he
choose Moses for his own glory, for his own glory, for his own
purpose, that he might be the deliverer of the children of
Israel. He was raised up for this purpose. The only hope is that I understand
something. She actually mentions over in,
uh, you can read it sometime, Joshua chapter two, she actually
mentioned, she says, well, I heard about what had happened in Egypt
and how the red sea swallowed up the Egyptians. And I heard
about all the fighting that you guys did throughout the wilderness
and different places and how the Lord's Lord's on your side.
She said, I believe, I believe. And that's the gift of grace.
That's faith, which is the gift of grace. The Lord made her believe. The Lord gave her faith to believe
all the stories and accounts that she had heard. And it even
says that they trembled when they heard that the Hebrews were
there at the Jordan River fixing to cross over to Jericho. They
trembled because they knew that God was on their side. And yet
she believed. She didn't fear for nothing.
She feared unto the Lord in reverence. The Lord gave her faith to believe. I love that he calls it a true
token, a true token. The Lord's people are the only
one that have a true token, true promises of the Lord that came
to pass. We have a true token of his word,
of his fulfilled gospel. We have a true token. The blood
is still there. The blood is still applied. Something important, something
very important, is the Lord was not, whenever they went inside
that house, and you know judgment's coming, you're not gonna leave
your door open, are you? You know that the Lord's gonna destroy
your firstborn child, you're gonna keep your door shut, even
though it won't do any good if he wants to come in, but still, we would
have our door shut, wouldn't we? But the thread, scarlet thread, and
the blood both were on the outside. of the house, they're both on
the outside of the house. And this is important because
they're now inside the house with the door shut, with the
blood and the cord on the outside. Did the one who was the destroyer
knock on the door to see what was going on on the inside to
see if he was satisfied with what they were doing in there?
Did he begin to ask them about their lifestyle or ask them about
What are you doing? Have you been living right right
now? It's Christmas is coming this week and. You know, it's
always have you been a good boy? Have you been a good girl? You
know you hear that and that's still kind of what religion does
a lot of times, but. That's not what the Lord did.
He was looking for one thing. He was looking for the blood
because it pointed to the blood of the lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was looking for that scarlet thread because it was his promise.
And that's what Moses was looking to. And that's what Rahab was
looking to is the promise of God that if I have that blood
applied, I'm safe from death. I'm safe from hell. I'm safe
from destruction. I have been made the righteousness
of God in Christ all by his doing. If I have the blood applied.
You can imagine the son, the firstborn son, he knew what was
going on. He would have had to know what was going on. Lord
told Moses, go kill a lamb, put the blood on the doorpost and
lintel. And he did. And they shut the door and they're
in the house. And can you imagine the fear that the firstborn son
had? If judgment was to come to that
house, he'd have been the one to die. You think he might have said,
dad, how do you know it's still there? How do you know the blood's
still there? See, we've never seen the blood
with our natural eyes, have we? No. It can't be seen with the
natural eye. It has to be seen by faith. And
we know it's still there. Why? Because Moses was a picture
of the father. You know, he told the son, yes,
I know it's still there. I'm the one that put it there. You
didn't put it there. And that's the same with the
Lord's people. He's the one that supplied the blood. We didn't apply it.
We didn't supply it and we didn't apply it. Neither one, he did
it. How do we know it's still there? That's what I've titled
this message. How do you know? How do you know? How do we know
it's still there? Because of the one that applied
the blood. He's the keeper of his people.
He's the salvation of his people. He applied it. It's never gonna
go away. Nothing can wash it away. It's
permanent. Likewise, Rahab, she had that
cord bound on the window. Did she go check on it? I don't
know. Scripture's not clear on that. But it was looking to the
promise of God, not looking to the cord. See, it was that they
were resting in the promise of the Lord. He applied the blood,
as God said, and he believed God. He believed God. When we
come to Christ, we come believing he is truth and we are not. We
come trusting in his sovereignty, his will, his choice, his power,
not ours. Not ours. We don't look to our
ability. The Lord wasn't looking at what Rahab's family was doing
on the inside whenever he was coming that way for judgment.
He was looking at the cord. He was looking at the blood,
the covering, and that's what he does for his people. He sees
the blood of the lamb, and he says, perfectly righteous. You're
perfectly righteous in him. You're perfectly righteous in
him. Why? You have the blood applied. You have the blood applied. He didn't look at their deeds.
He didn't look at their life. He didn't look at their effort.
He had given them faith to believe, and they did as he said out of
obedience. Out of obedience. Not for salvation,
but because he is salvation. He is salvation. They obeyed
out of obedience. Not for righteousness, but because
of righteousness and faith bestowed. Come what may, we have full assurance
because of the God that promised it. He cannot lie. He cannot
lie. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass by you. They said, the cord's bound in
the window. You will not die. You will not
die. All that's in your house will
be saved. This is our oath. She made them swear unto her
by God. She said, you're God's men, so swear unto me by God.
Give me his promise, is what she was saying. What's his promise
to me? And they spoke on the Lord's behalf. They said, nothing
will happen to you as long as that cord is bound in the window.
And did you know nothing can touch you? Nothing can touch
me? If we're the children of God and the cord's bound in the
window and the blood's been applied, nothing can touch us because
we're in his hand. Nothing can touch us because
he is the keeper of his people. Nothing can harm us that he doesn't
permit or he doesn't allow. And certainly death, hell, and
the grave has nothing to say against the child of God because
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Imagine the frightening scene of the
young man in the house with the dad. He has to be fearful, but
he trusts his dad. He trusts his dad. And come what
may, we may be fearful. But if you ask a believer, how
do you know the blood's still there? Because the Lord said
so. And that's good enough. The Lord
said so. When he said it is finished,
that means it was applied to every single child of God at
that moment. It just has to be revealed in
time. It just has to be revealed in time. So the blood is still
there. No, I can't see it. Can't really see evidence of
it, can you? Can you see evidence of it in yourself? Well, I've
really gotten better. I'm living so much better than
I used to live. No, we don't look at the evidence
of the blood being there, we look to Christ. And that's what
this is a picture of, is they shut the door in faith, looking
to God to honor His word. And that's all we have is His
word. It's not our word that we've given Him. So many people
say you need to rededicate your life to Him and you need to,
clean up your life more and try to serve more. And if it's humanitarian
things, there's nothing wrong with doing that, but don't do
it for salvation. No, no, shut the door. Know that the blood
is still there and look to Christ. Look to Christ. He'll order,
he'll provide. He leadeth his people beside
still waters. He restores our soul. And even
though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we don't
have to fear evil because he conquered death for us, for his
people. Imagine that boy saying, Dad,
can you go check and see if the blood's still there? That's my
only hope. That blood's not there. I have no hope. And the father
would have said, no, I don't have to. I put it there myself.
You didn't put it there. Thanks be to God, we have a heavenly
father that applied it himself. We do not have to check to see
if it's there. We don't have to check what God
has done. We don't have to check what God has said as far as to
see if it came to pass. Like he said, we know it will,
because he's God. Because he's God. How do you
know that the blood is still there? Because he said so and
it's impossible for him to lie. For every, for every, elect child
of God. For every elect child of God,
the blood has been applied, and he is satisfied with them because
of that blood. And there is no shadow of turning
in him, no variableness in him. He doesn't change. If he's pleased
right now, he's always gonna be pleased. He's always gonna
be pleased. I love the fact that we didn't
have anything to do with the application. If we did, we'd have messed it
up, wouldn't we? If it was up to you to apply the blood, how
would we do it? Well, I would mess it up. I know that. Why?
Because I'm sinful by nature, by practice. And we loathe this
flesh, don't we? We despise it. We have no confidence
in this flesh to do that. But he didn't ask us for our
help. He applied the blood himself. He applied it. He gave the promise
that if it's there and I see it, I'll pass by you. But he's
the one that applied it. And God washed his people whiter
than snow, It was snowing at our house yesterday.
I guess it's probably snowing at everybody's house, right?
Around here. We had enough. Three inches was enough. The
dogs were out there playing. The kids were out there playing.
We have Dalmatians. As most of you know, some people
streaming may not know that. Dalmatians are a white dog with
black spots. I like them because they remind me of me. They're
completely blemished. They don't have any pattern whatsoever.
It's us by nature. A dog that's, you understand
what I'm saying. Well, I thought that dog was
white. I thought those dogs were white. And then I sent them outside
to run to the snow. I'm like, these dogs ain't white.
They're more of a cream color compared to the snow. They ain't
white. They're an off white. They're
not even close to being white. This snow is just beaming gloriously
white. It looks spotless. To bring our
righteousness before God is just that. is to say, I am white,
I am clean. No, we're not. No, we're not,
we're full of blemishes. We're full, we're dirty. They
may have been dirty, if I'd have washed them, maybe they'd be
more white. I don't know, but the point I'm making is the things that
we think that we can bring before God that are good, that we do,
the things that we bring before God that we think is gonna give
us that covering or that protection when judgment comes is not gonna
work because the Lord doesn't see it the way we see it. Just
as the dog is actually not white compared to the snow, we're not
white compared to the Lord. He's spotless, he's pure, he's
holy, he's perfect. And by his blood he's made his
people just that, just that, by his own blood. He said it
is finished and he cannot lie. How do you know that Jesus Christ
was successful in redemption? Well, scripture says God raised
him up for our justification, because of our justification.
That's one way we know. How do we know the blood's there?
Because God raised up Christ from the dead. He was satisfied
with that blood. Then he said, when Christ by himself purged
our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high. This is how we know the blood's still there. He's seated.
He's seated. It's finished. And he cannot
lie. He cannot lie. You and I are
the sinners with no hope. But thanks be to God, the blood
is still there for his people. The blood is still there. The
blood is still active. The blood is still powerful.
The blood has never failed to redeem one time. The blood was
not spilt in vain. It was given by the Lord Jesus
Christ for a purpose, for the salvation of the Lord's people.
And that's why the Lord said, when I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. When I see that scarlet thread in the window, I'll pass
by you. Not because you did all the work
there, but because of God, by faith. That's what all this is
about, is about by faith. They didn't just put the blood
out there and say, okay, I've done my part. The Lord will leave
us alone. No, they believed God. They believed God by faith. And that's what we must do as
well. And only the Lord can enable us. Only the Lord can cause us
to do that. We don't look to the red cord. We look to the
precious blood. That's what the red cord represents,
isn't it? That's what the red cord represents. The Lord chose
to save Rahab and her house. Why? Why did he choose to do
that? Grace. And why did he choose
to save you and why did he choose to save me? Grace. Saved everybody
in her house. Why'd he do that? For his glory,
for his honor. She was given faith to believe
God. Faith to believe God. And you
and I have to have that faith to believe him. Our flesh won't
make sense of hanging a cord in a window, and we don't do
that now. But you understand what I'm saying. It wouldn't
have made sense. How is that going to protect me? Because God said so. Something I've always done as
a daddy, my children will be asking me something. Why can't I do
that, dad? And maybe I think some of you
all probably did the same thing. You say, because I said so. See,
it's my authority. It's my position to do that as
dad. Now, sometimes I'll explain it to them. For the most part,
it's because I said so. And they might not like that,
but that's good enough for me because I said so. I'm daddy.
I'm taking care of you. I'm protecting you. It's for
your own good because I said so. And it's amazing that in
our nature, our human nature, when the Lord says, because he
said so, we get angry. Our flesh gets bad at that. God said so. We want to be God
ourself. But the new man hears the Lord say, because I said
so, and rests. Truth, Lord. Truth Lord, you're
right, I'm not, I'm not right. I'll hang the cord there, I'll
look to the cord. If you just give me the faith
to look to you and believe on you and your promises, that's
all I'm asking for. It calls me to see Christ. It
calls me to see Christ. There's no salvation outside
of our Lord. There's no salvation out of him
making us, enabling us. causing us to believe. If he
doesn't, there is no salvation. But here are the good news of
the gospel. The good news is the promise that he's given to
his people is I will and you shall. The promise isn't if you
will, I will. The promise is I'm going to save
you and you shall be saved. I'm going to keep you and you're
going to be kept. I'm going to bring you to glory
and reveal my glory in you. And you'll have glory revealed.
I'm going to be with you all the way, even to the end, and
you'll never be left alone. This is what faith believes is
the word of God. It rests in the word of God.
And it's how we know that the blood is still there. It's how
we know it wasn't in vain, but it accomplished salvation and
salvation of the Lord's people. We can't see the blood, but we
know it's there by faith. It'll never lose its power, never.
I love the thought in religion, you know, I can ask this. We
can think about this for a minute. If the Lord shed his blood for
everyone and yet to save everyone, and yet some people die and go
to hell, what does the blood of Christ have to do with salvation? Think about that. Think about
that. If he died to save everyone,
shed his blood to do so, and that is the means by which he,
the sacrifice that was given in order for you and I, this
is his blood shed, this is his body broken. If that was the
means, what does the blood have to do with salvation then if
some people go to hell? Doesn't have much of a meaning,
does it? But when Christ died and shed His blood, He shed it
on purpose, for a purpose, for a people, people that He loved,
loved before the foundation of the world, everlastingly loved,
Scripture says. He shed His blood for those people
to redeem those people and actually put away their sin. And we look
to that blood, we look to His life, we look to His death, we
look to His burial and resurrection as our substitute surety as our
only hope of salvation. And we cling to the promises
of what the Lord has said. When I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. Lord, wash
me and I shall be clean. Purge me with hyssop, I shall
be clean. Wash me, I shall be made whiter than snow. That's
what David prayed, Psalm 51. We can't see the blood, but we
know it's there by faith. It's never failed to redeem a
single sheep that the Lord purposed to redeem. How do we know the blood's still
there? Well, because of the promises of God, because he's the keeper
of the promises also. If he promised it would be us
doing something, we would still do it, but he's the author and
finisher. He's the promiser and keeper
of the promise. He's the doer as well as the
author. There's great hope in that. If
you've seen yourself a sinner, you realize I can't keep my promises,
not to him, not spiritually speaking. Can't keep my promises, but he
did, but he did. He alone applied the blood to
his people, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? He is God, and besides him there
is none other. He's the one that applied it.
We just look at it through a glass darkly, don't we? We look at
it through faith. We know that it's still there.
It's still applied. He is salvation for his chosen
blood-bought people. How do you know the blood's still
there? Because you've been able to see it by faith, not by sight. By faith, not by sight. Let's
pray. Father, cause us to look to you
and believe. I ask that you take this, bless
it according to your will, to our understanding in Christ's
name, amen. Let's take a break.